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By Brian Pitts
Enterprise Record

The Davie girls basketball team opened the season Nov. 23 by visiting an opponent that went 12-1 last season, and the War Eagles came out on fire. They went on an 8-0 run, then scored six straight points. They surged in front by seven.
It was wonderful. And then … it wasn’t wonderful.
The War Eagles, after leading at halftime, after regaining the lead in the third quarter, went ice cold and lost 60-37 to West Wilkes.
“The first half was phenomenal,” coach Lindsey Adams said. “The second half we played great. We just could not make a shot.”
In the opening stages, Peyton Spaugh, London Dirks and Somer Johnson produced the 8-0 run that gave Davie a 10-6 lead. Malayka Rankin had four points during the 6-0 run that produced an 18-13 advantage. When Johnson scored, Davie had its biggest lead at 22-15. Spaugh accounted for five of Davie’s last seven points in the half, and Davie headed to the locker room with a 30-26 lead.
The terrific half saw Johnson score nine, Spaugh seven, Olivia Tatum five and Dirks five.
The Blackhawks opened the second half with six unanswered points, but Davie regained a 33-32 lead on a 3-pointer by Spaugh.
That’s when the Davie misery began. West outscored Davie 28-4 from that point on. After Spaugh’s go-ahead triple, the only War Eagle to score the rest of the way was Tatum.
It was a bizarre offensive meltdown. After scoring 33 points in a little over a half, Davie finished with 37. And the problem wasn’t turnovers.
“We played great defense and kept rebounding,” Adams said. “We just could not make a single shot we took. It was like someone covered the rim with Saran Wrap.”
Spaugh, who led last year’s JV team with a 9.3 scoring average, had a team-high 10 in her varsity debut. Johnson and Tatum had nine each. Dirks had five and Rankin four.
The silver lining: If the War Eagles shoot like they did in a 22-point first quarter, they could/should win several games. Furthermore, they were, for a while, outplaying a team with strong tradition. The Blackhawks went 19-8, 19-7 and 12-1 the past three seasons. Their only loss last year was 58-55 to Mountain Heritage in the second round of the state playoffs.
“We also played without our starting point guard, Kenadi Gentry,” Adams pointed out.